The Botox Mom is Real!

It’s not every day you get an email from your boss with a title that says, “Botox mom is real,” but that’s what I saw a few hours ago in my in-box. The mom in question apparently lives in the Bay Area, and is injecting Botox into her 8-year old daughter’s face to get rid of lines. When we heard about this story, which was first reported in a British tabloid about a month ago, several people in the newsroom including myself did a little digging. The mother, Kerry Campbell claims she is an aestitician, but I couldn’t find any record of her from the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, so I figured it was a hoax. I mean what mom would really inject her own daughter with Botox? Apparently this crazy mom. She’s real and she talked exclusively to ABC’s Lara Spencer. The story aired this morning on Good Morning America.

The broadcast journalist in me gives props to ABC for finding the mother and getting her to agree to an interview. The mom in me however, is shocked and appalled.

Campbell claims she’s doing this to give her daughter Britney an edge in child beauty pageants. This is not only wrong, but also a form of child abuse, both physically and emotionally. The child is 8 years old, and the so-called wrinkles this mother is trying to erase are actually dimples! I can only imagine how shattered the girl’s self-confidence has got to be if her mom is trying to fix non-existent imperfections.

As I write about this story, I am filled with rage. I want to tell this mother not to use her daughter as an extension of herself. The girl is not a voodoo doll to be tortured with Botox injections and waxing. Yes, the mom also said she has waxed her daughter’s upper leg because she thinks the hair is not lady-like. When Spencer asked Britney about the waxing, her recollection of the pain her mom inflicted on her was evident.

The obvious question is how did Campbell get her hands on the Botox injections? She told ABC she gets it from a trusted source, a behind-the-scene doctor, whatever that means. This just goes to show there needs to be a crackdown on pharmaceutical companies to make sure these potentially dangerous drugs (or poison in the case of Botox) do not get into the wrong hands.

I’m going to step-down from my soap box now, and hang out with my 3 beautiful girls, including my own 8-year-old.